Almost every student of earth sciences knows the hoax perpetuated on poor Dr. Johann Bartholomäus Adam Beringer (1667-1738), often told in textbooks as warning of blind faith and argument from authority in science.
However careful study of the still existing “lying stones of Würzburg“ and the preserved historic documents of the lawsuit that investigated the claims of fraud at Beringer´s time depict a much more complicated “criminal case”.